A sharply divided Erie Board of Trustees voted Tuesday night against turning over certain emails they exchanged with town attorneys to a special prosecutor investigating Mayor Joe Wilson for alleged ethics violations.

The emails are protected by attorney-client privilege. The board, in a 3-3 vote, defeated a request by the prosecutor to waive that privilege so he could see the communications. Wilson recused himself from the proceedings.

The discussion over the emails, which may contain information about real estate deals the mayor was involved in on the west side of town, sparked a robust debate Tuesday.

Trustee Janice Moore said those on the board voting against waiving attorney-client privilege, and keeping the emails confidential, would make it look "like you have something to hide."

"By our withholding this information, we cannot continue to be transparent to the citizens of Erie," she said.

Trustee Paul Ogg shot back that the investigation into Wilson has dragged on too long and become nothing more than "political theater." He said special prosecutor Brian McCoy, who was appointed to look into the matter in late March after an Erie resident filed an ethics complaint against the mayor, had plenty of time to find something incriminating but didn't.

Ogg said the board would be setting a dangerous precedent by releasing the emails to McCoy.

"If this board waives attorney-client privilege, I will never, ever have a candid conversation with our attorney (again)," he said.

McCoy, a Denver lawyer, had asked the board to waive the privilege so he could examine emails exchanged between trustees and town attorney Mark Shapiro and Carolynne White, the attorney representing Erie's urban renewal authority.

"We believe the emails contain information pertaining to events we are investigating," McCoy wrote in a letter to the town.

The Board of Trustees was acting in its role as the commissioners of the urban renewal authority when it took its vote Tuesday.

The ethics investigation was triggered by a complaint filed by Erie resident Elisabeth Fisher, who questioned the role Wilson -- who is also chairman of Erie's urban renewal authority -- played in real estate transactions at the southeast corner of U.S. 287 and Arapahoe Road.

In her complaint, Fisher questioned whether Wilson used his office to make a profit on the sale of a parcel of land to the town and asked if the mayor was representing himself, Erie or a previous landowner in a second transaction at the corner.

The mayor's involvement at that corner generated headlines earlier this year when Wilson was ordered by a judge not to come within 100 yards of a tenant he was trying to evict from a property he represented at North 111th Street. The tenant, Karol Hopper, requested the temporary restraining order after she accused the mayor of intimidating her at her house.

The case was dropped after Wilson agreed to give up his interest in the 5-acre property in April.

Wilson denies that his involvement in land deals poses a conflict of interest, saying that he is a real estate professional who was simply dealing with a landlord-tenant issue. He has called the allegations against him "small-town politics at its worst."

Trustee Mark Gruber said residents deserve full disclosure in the matter.

"I think we owe the public a clear view of reality," he said.

But Mayor Pro Tem Ronda Grassi said the investigation was being driven by "personality conflicts" on the board and that it has already cost the town $30,000. She voted against releasing the emails and said McCoy should wrap up his investigation as soon as possible.

The town of Erie denied a request by the Camera to look at the emails in question, citing attorney-client privilege.

In addition to Grassi's and Ogg's votes against releasing the emails, Trustee Joe Carnival voted against the measure. On the other side, Trustee Jonathan Hager joined Moore and Gruber in voting to turn the communications over.

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